Many examples of the use of fluid connectors to connect a first fluid system with a second fluid system are known. One type of fluid connector is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,528. As described in this patent, collets are arranged to close around a tube under control of a retractable sleeve. The collets are not designed to put significant gripping pressure on the outside of the tube. Instead, the collets are designed to wedge between the tube and the sleeve, with a feature on the tube, such as a bead, barb, threads or the like, held by the collets. When the sleeve is in a locked position, the sleeve is over the collets and holds the collets in a collapsed position around the tube. When the sleeve is pulled backward to a retracted position against the biasing force of a spring, the collets are biased open by a biasing spring. Due to the construction of the collets and an internal piston within the fluid connector, the collets prevent the sleeve from being biased back to the locked position until such time as an end of the tube is inserted into the connector and the piston is pushed backward. Therefore, when the fluid connector is not connected to a tube, the collets are held open ready to receive the end of the tube, and the collets hold the sleeve back at the retracted position.
The type of fluid connector described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,209,528 is designed to work with a specific tube size having a specific configuration such as a bump, bead, barb, flare or the like. If one tries to connect to a tube having a larger or smaller diameter, or having a different configuration, the fluid connector will not attach or incorrectly attach to the tube permitting separation of the tube from the fluid connector during use. As a result, this type of fluid connector tends to be custom made for each tube configuration and size, so that a number of fluid connectors need to be produced for the various anticipated tube configurations and sizes to be encountered. Due to the custom manufacturing, these types of fluid connectors are expensive to manufacture, have long lead times to produce, and are costly due to the number of connections required.